INTRODUCTOEY. 35 



one of the most material results of the utter iofnorance 

 of the administrative officers of that period regarding 

 everything connected with the wilder portions of their 

 charge. The mischief had been completed, and most of 

 the timber speculators had bolted from their creditors, 

 leaving their logs smoking in the forests, before the 

 formation of the Central Provinces, and ere the Forest 

 Department had entered on their labour of exploring 

 and arranging for the protection of what was still worth 

 looking after. Succeeding chapters will give some ac- 

 count of such of these explorations as the writer was 

 engaged in, and of the penalties and pleasures that 

 accompanied the early investigations in these Central 

 Indian forests. 



r> 2 



